Current Arthritis News and Research » stroke http://4-arthritis-info.com Regular Updates on the Many Forms of Arthritis Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:30:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Pfizer Settles Bextra, Celebrex Lawsuits http://4-arthritis-info.com/pfizer-settles-bextra-celebrex-lawsuits/ http://4-arthritis-info.com/pfizer-settles-bextra-celebrex-lawsuits/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:54 +0000 awesome http://4-arthritis-info.com/wp/?p=219 As a follow up to the last post, Pfizer announced last Friday that they have agreed to pay $894 million to settle 3 lawsuits that alleged Celebrex and Bextra harmed patients in the U.S. and defrauded consumers. The suits claimed that Bextra and Celebrex resulted in increased risks of heart attacks and strokes.

There were rumors as early and May 2008 of a settlement. At that time the Wall Street Journal reported that attorneys for Pfizer were in negotiations with representatives of the plaintiffs. Pfizer did not confirm the settlements until the press release issued last week.

Of the $894 settlement, $745 million will go toward settling injury claims, $89 million for Bextra and Celebrex class action consumer fraud suits, and $60 million for state attorney general settlements over marketing practices related to Bextra.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked Pfizer to withdraw Bextra in 2005, less than 4 years after its approval by the FDA. This was due to mounting evidence of increased cardiovascular risks and reports of a potentially fatal skin reaction called Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

Bextra and Celebrex are in the same class of drugs as Vioxx, which was previously withdrawn from the market in September 2004. Merck, the maker of Vioxx, has resolved most of the thousands of claims of injury by U.S. patients in a $4.85 billion settlement.

Celebrex remains as the only cox-2 inhibitor still available on the market today. According to Pfizer, state and federal courts have ruled that there is no reliable scientific evidence that Celebrex increases the risk of stroke and heart attacks. However, the FDA required all prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including Celebrex, to carry a “black box” warning about potential increased risk of heart attacks, stroke and gastrointestinal problems.

Originally posted 2008-10-22 11:04:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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]]> http://4-arthritis-info.com/pfizer-settles-bextra-celebrex-lawsuits/feed/ 0 Gout Increases Heart Attack Risk http://4-arthritis-info.com/gout-increases-heart-attack-risk/ http://4-arthritis-info.com/gout-increases-heart-attack-risk/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:46:24 +0000 awesome http://4-arthritis-info.com/wp/?p=118 Gout is a form of arthritis that is caused by an excess of uric acid in the bloodstream. This causes crystals to form in the joints, typically in the big toe.

Results of a recent research project, carried out by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and published in the Archives of Internal [...] No related posts.]]> Gout is a form of arthritis that is caused by an excess of uric acid in the bloodstream. This causes crystals to form in the joints, typically in the big toe.

Results of a recent research project, carried out by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, indicates that people with existing risk factors for heart disease may have an increased risk for heart attack or stroke if they also develop gout.

The study involved over 9,000 men who were between 41 and 63 years old. They all had above average risk for heart disease, with factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

The researchers found that after 17 years the men who developed gout were 30% more likely to die from cardiac arrest or other cardiovascular disease than those without gout.

Not all men with elevated uric acid levels develop gout. Men in this study that had high levels of uric acid, but did not develop gout, did not have a higher risk of cardiovascular related death.

This study supports the findings in a 2004 study of 1,423 middle aged Finnish men. That research found that men with excess uric acid in the blood had a 250% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those with normal levels.

One theory is that an excess of uric acid in the bloodstream causes “oxidative stress”, which results in the LDL cholesterol being oxidized. Oxidized LDL is viewed as more dangerous because it causes hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

Originally posted 2008-07-22 21:20:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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]]> http://4-arthritis-info.com/gout-increases-heart-attack-risk/feed/ 1 Vioxx Risk Continues After Disuse http://4-arthritis-info.com/vioxx-risk-continues-disuse/ http://4-arthritis-info.com/vioxx-risk-continues-disuse/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 21:41:14 +0000 awesome http://4-arthritis-info.com/wp/?p=217 Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a class of drugs widely prescribed to arthritis sufferers. Among this class of drugs are those that were designed to specifically inhibit the cyclooxygenase (cox-2) enzyme which is involved in inflammation. Cox-2 inhibitors include Vioxx, Bextra and Celebrex.

Vioxx was approved by the FDA in 1999 for use in treating osteoarthritis. In 2001 Merck, the maker of Vioxx, began a 3 year study involving 2,587 people to show that Vioxx, which caused fewer gastrointestinal problems that older NSAIDs, could prevent the recurrence of colon cancer. However, Merck terminated the study 2 months early when the analysis of the data showed a doubled risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular issues, including death, in the study group receiving Vioxx over the placebo group.

Merck pull Vioxx from the market several months later on September 30th, 2004.

A follow up study was conducted to determine the lingering effects of long term use of Vioxx. This study was funded by Merck, which also provided the data, but was conducted independently. This analysis found that during the year following the halt of the 2004 study the risk of heart attack was 94% higher for those that took Vioxx (34) over those that took the placebo (18). They also found that the risk of stroke was more that double for the Vioxx group (19) over the placebo group (9).

In all, 76 Vioxx users suffered a stroke, heart attack, blood clot or died compared to 46 in the placebo group during that follow-up year.

Results of this study were published October 14th in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Merck issued the following statement in response to the Lancet study: “Merck believes that this post-hoc analysis using limited data from a prematurely terminated study needs to be interpreted very cautiously and in the context of the rest of the data from the extensive clinical development program for Vioxx.”

To be fair, it must be restated that older NSAIDs, such as naproxen and ibuprofen, also carry cardiovascular risks, along with risks of stomach bleeding and other complications.

Of the three cox-2 inhibitors, only Celebrex, manufactured by Pfizer, is still available in the U.S.

Originally posted 2008-10-20 15:12:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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]]> http://4-arthritis-info.com/vioxx-risk-continues-disuse/feed/ 0 Trial Underway to Reduce Stroke Deaths in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients http://4-arthritis-info.com/47/ http://4-arthritis-info.com/47/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:50 +0000 awesome http://4-arthritis-info.com/wp/2007/12/24/47/ Last month I wrote about a large scale analysis of the incidence of stroke in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients in the U.K. The conclusion of this research was that RA patients have a significantly higher risk of stroke than the general population. That study included diagnosis and prescription information of over 130,000 people in [...] No related posts.]]> Last month I wrote about a large scale analysis of the incidence of stroke in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients in the U.K. The conclusion of this research was that RA patients have a significantly higher risk of stroke than the general population. That study included diagnosis and prescription information of over 130,000 people in the U.K.

There is a new, 5 year, multi-center trial aims to find out if taking a particular cholesterol-lowering statin, called atorvastatin, will reduce the number of patients that die from heart attacks and strokes. The
£1.1million ($2.2 million) trial is being funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Arthritis Research Campaign.

The study, which started recruiting in September, will include 3,500 participants from across the U.K. Over the next 15 months over 40 rheumatology departments across the U.K. will be recruiting patients over the age of 40 who are not currently taking statins. They will be given either a statin or a placebo to compliment their current RA treatment. They will also receive counseling on good health habits to reduce the risk of heart disease such as exercise, diet and stopping smoking.

Statins are known to reduce the LDL, or “bad”, cholesterol which plays an important role in both the primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral artery disease
The trial’s lead investigator, Dr. George Kitas of Russell’s Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands, says: “If this trial works as expected, we could be looking at a reduction of the absolute risk of cardio-vascular death rate in RA patients by ten to 15 per cent, or the relative risk by 35 to 40 per cent, which is significant.”

Originally posted 2007-12-24 20:00:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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